RALEIGH, N.C. — With chants of “Darryl Williams” and “Tyre Nichols,” more than 100 protesters marched through downtown Raleigh on Saturday. The peaceful protesters called for police to be held accountable after the deaths.
The protest comes after the Saturday morning funeral for Williams, who died after Raleigh police used a Taser on him three times during an arrest Jan. 17. Protesters marched in Charlotte and other cities around the country Friday and Saturday after the release of a video showing the brutal beating of Nichols by police officers in Memphis.
Protesters gathered before 1 p.m. on Fayetteville Street in Raleigh. They marched for about two hours. Raleigh police blocked traffic for the marchers as they took a route around downtown, walking by the Executive Mansion and the legislature.
There was a large police presence downtown. The Wake County Justice Center and the Raleigh Police Department's downtown station were blocked with metal barricades.
Another protest in Charlotte attracted more than 80 people.
In Raleigh, the focus was on Williams, with protesters demanding the officers involved be fired from the Raleigh Police Department and prosecuted.
"No one should be electrocuted in a parking lot," one protest leader told the crowd.
The five-day report from the Raleigh Police Department said officers found Williams and another man in a car at about 2 a.m. Jan. 17. He tried to run from police and officers used a Taser on Williams three times, according to the report. Williams stopped breathing and died at about 3 a.m. while in police custody, the report said.
"Darryl Williams would not be dead if it were not for the roving gangs that the Raleigh Police Department calls proactive policing," one speaker said before the march.
The protesters called for the Raleigh City Council to end the police department's "proactive policing" program, comparing it to New York City's "stop and frisk" policy.